While browsing books at my favorite Target store (a section that I always seem to end up in even when I don’t plan to) I saw a copy of An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor. I read the back and thought, “Oh, a bit like James Herriot”. Which meant of course that I had to buy it.
It’s the 1960s, The Beatles haircuts are mentioned as well as a new band called the Rolling Stones and Barry Laverty is fresh out of medical school. The young doctor is on his way to the village of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland (fictional, in case you were wondering) to apply to be the assistant to Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly. Barry wants to get a taste of general practice in a small village before he decides if he wants to specialize or not. Ballybucklebo, it turns out, is the perfect place to get his feet wet.
Barry first meets Dr. O’Reilly as he unceremoniously chunks a patient out his door and into the rose bushes. This just happens to be an act that Barry vehemently disagrees with but since the good doctor’s reason is believable enough Barry decides to stay and give him a chance. More than once do Barry and Dr. O’Reilly butt heads over a patient. It’s a case of Barry learning that what you know from university isn’t all you need to be a doctor. Between learning general practice and getting to know the village Barry finds time to fall in a love and get a little fishing done.
There are some really great characters here, some more stereotypical than others, but all lovable. Dr. O’Reilly seems mean and gruff at first but he is quickly given some depth with a history in the war and a lost love. He’s rough but has a heart of gold, which comes through in his care for the patients. Then we’ve got the town drunk who still manages to be endearing, the big man who owns half the town and lords it over the rest, the local odd-ball with cats, the housekeeper who makes sure the doctor’s eat, and a the new guy on the block. It sounds routine but Patrick Taylor brings them to life with attention to dialect (there's a glossary of terms in the back) as well as details of country life and doctor.
Everything fits nicely together in the end. Connections are revealed, with a small smile at the convince of it all and no loose end is left untied. The low points are even uplifting in the knowledge that while young Dr. Laverty might have made a few mistakes he did everything he could and no one dies. An Irish Country Doctor is light reading in the fact that there is nothing depressing or horribly sad to weigh down your emotions.
I have a huge love of books that transport. I want to go places and see things that are out of the ordinary (at least out of the ordinary for me). I want an experience. I want entertainment. I want a good read. An Irish Country Doctor, while it isn’t James Herriot like I had hoped, delivers. Patrick Taylor captures the life in a rural village, the characters and dialect, and gives you a book that is enjoyable. So much so that you won’t want it to end and it doesn’t have to. The story continues with An Irish Country Village.
Article comments